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The poem had been attributed to Geoffrey Chaucer for centuries until modern editors challenged this ascription. Who, then, is the author of The Cuckoo and the Nightingale or The Book of Cupid, as the poem is often called? Sir John Clanvowe (c1327-1391) of Hereford or Sir Thomas Clanvowe (died in 1410/12), probably his son, or another Sir John of Hereford? Most recent editors ascribe the poem to the first Sir John Clanvowe, who was a close friend of Chaucer's and a member of a group of knights at the court of Richard II, who cherished common literary and intellectual pursuits. The Cuckoo and the Nightingale combines features of a dream-vision and a debate poem. Francis Lee Utley summarizes the plot as follows:

Cupid and the spring send the poet to a forest to dream of love. He hears the Cuckoo sing churlishly of lovers while a Nightingale praises them. The poet intervenes and drives away the Cuckoo, who had ridiculed the Nightingale's song "ocy,'' which means that who will not serve Cupid shall die. The tearful Nightingale thanks him, is told not to believe a word the Cuckoo says, refers the poet to the "fresshe dayesye,'' and summons all the birds to a Parliament to be held on St. Valentine's Day "Before the chambre-window of the quene / At Wodestock, upon the grene lay.'' (Utley 1972:722)

The poem is written in a five-line stanzas, rhyming aabba, a form rarely used by English common, however, among French poets of the time. Inspiration by Chaucer's Parliament of Fowls and Legend of Good Women as well as parallels to The Knight's Tale are evident. The poet was probably familiar with Le Roman de la Rose and the earlier bird debates. Whether Thomas Hoccleve's Letter of Cupid, an adaptation of Christine de Pisan's Epistre au Dieux d'Amours, could have served as a model depends on the dating and authorship of The Book of Cupid.